By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
It’s hard to believe sometimes that kids can start playing organized football at the age of four years old, but that is what North Mason senior Justin Hill did when he played flag football as running back and wide receiver for South Kitsap Gray.
Hill is still playing football, and playing it well for the NM Bulldogs. The first official day of football practice is Wednesday (Aug. 21), but Hill has been playing it throughout the summer at various football camps.
The six-foot-two, 330-pound Hill, who this year will play right in the center of the Bulldog’s alignment as the nose guard on defense and the center on offense, participated in three camps – the first at Mercer Island High School at the end of June, then at the beginning of July to the University of Michigan, and the final one at Eastern Washington.
“He’s a legitimate college football player,” says North Mason coach Jeff Bevers. “What level, I don’t know. He’s 330 pounds, but he moves extremely well. He carries his weight extremely well. He’s probably one of our most athletic kids we have on the entire team, just from an agility standpoint. He’s one heck of a football player.”
Hill competed at the end of June at the Northwest Elite Football Camp at Mercer Island with around 650 other players from around the Northwest. There were coaches from most of the region’s major football programs, including five Pac-12 schools – Washington, Washington State, UCLA, Arizona State and Oregon State.
“I did pretty good coming from a 2A school and trying to compete against players from 4A schools,” Hill said.
He did well enough to attract the attention of Eastern Washington tight ends and offensive tackles coach Brian Strandley. In fact, Strandley came to Belfair to ask Hill if he was going to the Eastern Washington camp.
“He was pretty impressed,” says Hill. “He was more impressed with me at the Eastern camp. It was a full contact camp, so he would actually see what I could do with pads on, and just how fast I was off the ball, and how much motivation I had.”
Before going to the Eastern Camp, Hill went to Ann Arbor, Mich. He had sent recruiting tapes of himself out and coaches at the University of Michigan had replied to them and invited him to the football camp.
“He did get invited to the Michigan camp,” says Bevers. “You put a highlight film together and send it to coaches and they either like you or they don’t. He did a good job of answering the letters (coaches send) when they came in, which is important. If you don’t respond back, they don’t come calling back.”
“(Head) coach Brady Hoke emailed me back and sent me an invitation,” says Hill. “It was hand written and everything.”
The competition was an upgrade over the camp at Mercer Island.
“”The boys are bigger back east, but I held my own against them,” Hill said. “We did a lot of one-on-one drills, offense against defense, and team competition. They select teams and put an NFL name on your helmet. My team was the (Tennessee) Titans. I know the Seahawks won the Air Force football game (the ball was to be thrown and it can’t be kept longer than three seconds before being thrown) we played. We didn’t do so good, but we were competitive.”
Hill went back to Michigan two days before the camp and stayed with his mother’s sister (Susan). And before he left for home, they went to a Detroit Tigers game (the Tigers beat the Red Sox and Miguel Cabrera homered; he now has 40 on the season).
Hill believes he gets his ability to be quick on his feet from a grandfather (James Hill) and an uncle (Shawn Hill) on his father’s side of the family.
“My grandfather and my uncle ran the 100 in track,” says Hill.
Justin Hill, 66
That athletic ability extends for Hill to baseball. He plays third base and does some catching for the Bulldogs in the spring. But it’s football that will get him to the next level, if this school year he continues to get better in the classroom. Hill currently has a 2.2 grade-point average.
To get past the NCAA Eligibility Center (formerly the Clearing House) a freshman student/athletic entering a NCAA Division I school must have a 2.0 GPA in 13 core classes and a combined score of 900 on the SAT to be eligible to play.
Under those guidelines, Hill would be eligible to play D-I football, although he is gunning this coming school year to improve his academic standing.
“I can be smart in school, but I’m a little bit of a goofball when it comes to school,” Hill says. “I really talk a lot in class. I listen to the teacher, but I socialize a little bit. But I’m going to buckle down (this year).”
It shouldn’t be difficult this coming high school football season to spot Hill. Beside the obvious large size, Hill, who wears No. 66, also wears pink socks. And he has purchased some pink Nike cleats to go along with the socks.
This is not one of his goofball things. His grandmother (Carol McDowell) has had breast cancer and in October, which is the cancer awareness month, he will be decked out in as much pink as possible in support of his grandmother and others who have had or have cancer.
“The NFL does it (wear pink in October) and some high schools do it,” says Hill. “I’m pretty much the only one on my team who does it. My grandmother has been free of cancer now for three years.”
Hill is also a little different from some others in that he has started to drag race at Bremerton Raceway out near the Bremerton National Airport. He dragged with his truck last weekend, upsetting the high school track champion – Justin Vest of Elma – in the first round before falling to Trevor Fry of Montesano in the second round.
He’ll be back out there this weekend, if he can obtain the $25 entry fee.
“I’ll have to do some work around the house and yard to earn $10 more,” says Hill, who also snowboards at Snoqualmie and Crystal Mountain during the winter.
The large size, the larger then life personality combines to make Hill a hit among the North Mason Bulldogs. And he has been a big hit with opponents. Last year he led the Bulldogs with 58 tackles, 18 of them for losses, and Bevers still can’t figure out why he was not a first team all-Olympic League selection.
Maybe this year, the coaches who vote for the all-league team will get it right.
“He’s a good kid, like I said, and a heck of a player,” says Bevers.